Phillip Toner – författare

This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory of circular and cumulative causation. This theory is concerned with the general dynamics of growth and development in advanced industrial economies and developing nations. A detailed analysis of the theory's core concepts, including increasing returns, external economies, complementarity in production and consumption and technological change is provided. The book provides a detailed account of the historical development of the concept and identifies and critically assesses the major contributions of the chief figures in this tradition.

A central concern of economists, policymakers and civil society in recent years has been the persistent and widespread slowdown in global productivity growth.This stands in stark contrast to the robust productivity performance and associated prosperity witnessed across advanced economies in previous decades. The productivity slowdown represents a significant concern because it underpins the tensions emerging from income and wealth inequality, an expanded corporate profit share and geopolitical friction as established and emerging economic powers vie for global market supremacy. History offers numerous examples of technological advancement coinciding with heightened economic uncertainty and political discontent, yet these were also predominantly periods of accelerated productivity growth. This volume delivers a guide to the contested terrain through a diversity of perspectives spanning mainstream economic analysis to institutional and political economy frameworks. It encompasses topics ranging from the definition and measurement of productivity to the function of research and innovation, financialization and business dynamism, management quality and workplace relations and the existential implications and opportunities presented by climate change.Understanding Productivity targets policymakers, students across multiple disciplines and readers eager to examine the productivity "black box," to participate in an informed exploration of theory and evidence-based perspectives and to formulate their own conclusions about this critically important dimension of contemporary economic discourse and debate.

A central concern of economists, policymakers and civil society in recent years has been the persistent and widespread slowdown in global productivity growth.This stands in stark contrast to the robust productivity performance and associated prosperity witnessed across advanced economies in previous decades. The productivity slowdown represents a significant concern because it underpins the tensions emerging from income and wealth inequality, an expanded corporate profit share and geopolitical friction as established and emerging economic powers vie for global market supremacy. History offers numerous examples of technological advancement coinciding with heightened economic uncertainty and political discontent, yet these were also predominantly periods of accelerated productivity growth. This volume delivers a guide to the contested terrain through a diversity of perspectives spanning mainstream economic analysis to institutional and political economy frameworks. It encompasses topics ranging from the definition and measurement of productivity to the function of research and innovation, financialization and business dynamism, management quality and workplace relations and the existential implications and opportunities presented by climate change.Understanding Productivity targets policymakers, students across multiple disciplines and readers eager to examine the productivity "black box," to participate in an informed exploration of theory and evidence-based perspectives and to formulate their own conclusions about this critically important dimension of contemporary economic discourse and debate.

Four decades ago, faced with a series of economic, political and social crises, business and government leaders in Australia and many other nations were convinced by a well organised ideological insurgency of the need for what at first was presented as a series of technical changes in economic policy. However, neoliberalism quickly became a revolutionary agenda for re-ordering the social democratic state.Captured: How neoliberalism transformed the Australian state directs attention to the central role of state power not just to remake markets, but also to remake a broad swathe of political life, social policy and citizenship.In seeking to undermine the power of organised labour and “unleash” market capitalism, neoliberalism promised a surge of competition, productivity and common prosperity. For the wealthy few, this has indeed been an historically unprecedented time of capital accumulation, but for most, the results have been profoundly disappointing.Today, neoliberalism is in crisis. We are living through an age of great instability, disillusionment and despair. Inequality of income and wealth has been rising; a majority of workers have experienced long-term declining relative living standards; corporate political and market power has reached historic levels; and younger generations are increasingly giving up the expectation of attaining the living standards of their parents. The status of prevailing neoliberal ideas and policy is in increasing disarray.But without a coherent understanding of the ideas and interests driving neoliberalism, many people have turned to incoherent populism for an explanation and salvation and, failing that, even to forms of nihilism. Disillusion and anxiety constitute the dominant mood among the economic and policy elites, within Australia and internationally.Captured presents a series of case studies from leading public policy experts, building critical new insights into the malaise that has characterised the neoliberal era. This book tells the story of how a small group of economists and lobby groups with a universalising agenda of radical change used neoliberalism to transform the state, and of the destructive effects of those policies on everyday life. Captured includes critical accounts of neoliberal policy and speculates on the likely future of neoliberalism as a form of political power and governmentality in Australia.

Since the 1980s, successive waves of economic reform have radically changed the Australian economy. We have seen privatisation, deregulation, marketisation, and the contracting out of government services such as transport and education. For three decades, there has been a virtual consensus among the major political parties, policy makers and commentators as to the desirability of the neoliberal approach. Today, however, the benefits of economic reform are increasingly being questioned, including by former advocates. Alongside growing voter disenchantment, new voices of dissent argue that instead of free markets, economic reform has led to unaccountable oligopolies, increased prices, reduced productivity and a degraded sense of the public good. In Wrong Way, Australia’s leading economists and public intellectuals do a cost-benefit analysis of the key economic reforms, including child care, aged care, housing, banking, prisons, universities and the NBN. Have these reforms for the Australian community and its economy been worthwhile? Have they given us a better society, as promised?